The Knight Whose Wounds Bled Freely
by Inebriated Caffeine Imbiber
Summary: When a disillusioned Oscar confronts Ozpin about how he views people as pawns in front of Team RWBY and JNR, it brings back memories and emotions within a certain blonde knight that should've stayed buried.


It was shortly after the Battle of Haven. The whole gang was embracing some R&R before they head off to Atlas with the Relic they've just acquired.

The whole of team RWBY and JNR were seated at a long table, indulging themselves on the fine buffet that they had prepared earlier. Already, they were laughing and smiling, thinking of the good memories they had at Beacon, each more humiliated and hilarious than the last.

Meanwhile, Oscar was sitting in one of the chairs off to the side, brooding. He was sifting through Ozpin's memories until he landed onto the memory of Pyrrha. Curious, he delved into it and began to learn what had transpired. From his point of view, Ozpin had set her up to death the moment he asked her.

"It was completely her choice, and she was originally given ample time to come up with an answer. We were never going to force this on her." Ozpin explained calmly.

"But I wouldn't mind betting that she felt pressured into caving in. The amazing Mistralian fighter, becoming a Maiden and sealing her destiny. She would've been torn between what she wanted, and what she believed her destiny was." Oscar shot back scathingly.

"While you may make a good point, it was ultimately her choice to become a Maiden. She still had that choice before and during the Fall of Beacon. It was her choice." Reassured with a hard tone.

"Is it a choice when such a large responsibility is placed onto your shoulders?" He snarled at the voice in his head. Oscar could feel a flare of suppressed anger in the older man's mind.

"Oscar, you do not know of which you speak of. I am certainly capable of understanding responsibility, possibly more than anyone else that is currently alive. So forgive me if I'm not kind to being lectured by a child."

"They deserve to know, they need to know." He got up from his chair and strode towards the group.

"Oscar, stop. You will regret what you are about to do." Ozpin warned.

"Am I? Or are you just afraid of your motives being exposed?" He watched them all smile and laugh until they all began to notice his presence. It was Ruby who spoke up first.

"Oscar! Please sit down! Thankfully Nora hasn't eaten everything yet so there is still plenty to go around!" She patted next to her on a free chair.

There was a noticeable "Hey!" from the mentioned hammer wielder, everyone chuckled at that.

He smiled awkwardly before rubbing the back of his head. "I'd love to… But there is something I need to ask… Pyrrha, what was she like?"

Immediately, the room became a little darker. Ruby's eyes dimmed and she looked away, Jaune had stiffened noticeably and refused to make eye contact with him. Weiss took the initiative.

"She was an amazing person. She was the best fighter of our generation, and a brilliant person. Everyone loved her, everyone wanted to be her, and everyone looked up to her." Everyone but Jaune nodded in agreement, his hands were gripping his biceps so tight the knuckles turned white.

"What happened?" Oscar enquired, wanting to get to the bottom of this.

The voice of Jaune Arc followed soon after. "She died fighting a fight she knew she couldn't win. She was extremely troubled, the day before the Fall of Beacon she came to me, distraught. She didn't know what to do because her plan for her future life had been thrown into disarray by an unknown factor in her destiny. She believed it was her destiny to help everyone, to save everyone. But she was scared, confused and clueless. She came to me, and I must've said something wrong because she lost control of her Semblance and slammed me against the wall."

Everyone's eyes widened at that, even Nora let out a small gasp. Jaune turned his hard stare right at Oscar. "She died, because she believed it was her destiny to fight an unwinnable fight."

Oscar ingested this bit of information, a puzzle slowly forming into his head. "She was so controlled by the thought of her own destiny, that it drove her to her own death? What the hell Ozpin, you basically made her die a useless death!"

Everyone went deathly silent, Jaune became a statue of stone as his eyes never left Oscar. But Oscar couldn't see the reaction as he was too busy chewing out Ozpin. "Why was she given such a hard responsibility when it would ultimately kill her?"

Everyone became uneasy, almost as if they felt the white hot rage that emanated from Jaune. Yang tried to defuse the situation. "Oscar, this isn't the best time for this, please. Pick this up another time."

Oscar wasn't having any of it, his childish anger got the better of him. "Why are people so disposable in your eyes Ozpin? Was Pyrrha a pawn in your schemes?"

The whole table thudded loudly as Jaune stood up, his hand splintering the table. " **Shut up Oscar!** " His voice made everything quiet, even the crickets and the nightlife went silent. "You have no idea what you're talking about!" His eyes were wide with rage and his whole body shook from the emotions coursing through his veins.

Qrow came down due to the commotion and saw the antagonistic stance Jaune had towards Oscar. He believed he could restrain the kid if need be, but he wasn't going to intervene for fear of making the situation worse.

"Do you have any idea of what you're talking about!? What you've just said!?" He advanced on the younger man with each word.

Oscar became scared, he only briefly saw this rage from when he engaged with Cinder, but this was far worse. All he saw in those blue orbs was white hot rage. "O-Ozpin, help me."

His grave voice answered back. "I'm afraid I cannot do anything that will alleviate this situation. Think of it as a good life lesson about not getting yourself into situations you can't easily fix or back out of." The voice went silent after that.

"I-I thought I understoo-" He stammered.

" **You understand nothing!** " Jaune thundered. " **You know absolutely nothing about what's really going on! About what's at stake! You, a farmhand who shovelled shit while we were out there, dying to protect this world!** "

Weiss tried to feebly grab his arm but he jerked away. "Jaune, you're being unreasonable."

He twisted around suddenly and bored down on her, his eyes glowing with an uncharacteristic rage. "Shut up Weiss! This has nothing to do with you!"

She was shocked into silence, as was everybody else. They had never seen Jaune like this before and it was honestly frightening. He whirled on Oscar again.

"Do you have any idea on the pain that Pyrrha felt!? About the responsibility, the risks, her life and her destiny wrought on her!? The absolute torture she went through because she was so torn between losing herself and wanting to make Remnant a better place!?"

Oscar was stunned, his legs wouldn't move and he was starting to shake. He could never predict that Jaune could be this angry, he seemed like a nice guy when he first met him. "I-I'm sorry I didn't mean to-."

"To what!? Make Pyrrha's sacrifice meaningless? To make her seem like she was destined to die and not do great things!? Because let me tell you what Oscar, she was meant to save this world! She was meant to be the one who would be the hero in the books we read, the heroine that would banish the darkness! And we would help her! Because she was worth it!" By now, tears of despair and anger were falling down his face. He clasped his hand to his forehead in emotional agony as he choked out a sob.

"She was my everything! From day one she was in my corner! When everyone else abandoned me, she stayed by my side! She is the reason why I'm still here, why I can fight as well as I can. She is the reason why I still have the will to fight, because I cannot bear to disappoint her and let her efforts be in vain! **I loved her, I wanted to help her! But because I was too stupid to realise what was in front of me all along, she felt like she needed to die to become something worth remembering!** " His voice broke from the pure emotions running through his body. "She died because I was the worthless nobody! The worthless nobody that she saw when no one else saw me!"

He slammed his fist into one of the support beams and made a sizeable dent in the wood, his Aura flared brightly to mend whatever damage that caused to his hand. He broke down into a sob again before storming off, hand covering his face.

Everyone turned their eyes towards Oscar, who was still panting and wide eyed. "I-I'm so sorry everybody. I honestly d-didn't mean for that to happen."

Ruby sighed. "N-no it's fine Oscar. Please, come and sit down before the food gets cold." Oscar obliged and sat down next to her, taking a small portion of food and shamefully eating his share. He felt like the biggest piece of shit right now, and for what? Out of some misconception he had about the voice in his head?

Speaking of, said voice filled his head. "This is one of the harsher ways to learn that life lesson, but I don't think you will ever forget it. Am I right in assuming that?" Oscar mentally nodded in agreement.

"Someone please tell me, what hurts him so much about Pyrrha?" Oscar looked up hopelessly, he may have made a mistake but he wanted to know.

Blake sighed as she placed down her fork. "Jaune was one of those guys who fell head over heels towards any girl that would give him the light of day. It likely stems from his sense of self worth, or lack thereof. So to his eyes, any girl that was willing to even pay attention to him must be interested because what else did he have to offer? In his eyes he wasn't handsome by conventional standards and I'm willing to bet that he sells himself short on the intelligence side of things. Mix that with a famous Mistralian fighter whom he never recognised and it's a recipe for disaster for the heart."

Yang nodded in agreement. "We lost one of best friends when Pyrrha passed. Jaune lost his whole world."

Oscar's eyes widened when he realised the gravity of the situation he forced.

Jaune burst through the doors, tears streaming down his face. He felt numb from all the emotions and he felt his forehead burn with an intensity beyond a fever. His eyes stung and his lungs were in agony.

He just wanted her back, he wanted to hold her and tell her the things he wish he could've said, but he couldn't. He wished that she knew what he felt, that her love was reciprocated.

He collapsed onto his bed and let out a few agonising groans as he felt his heart yearn for someone who was long gone. Someone whom he wanted desperately, someone who he could talk to about his greatest fears.

With blind eyes, he fished out his scroll and looked through the videos until he found the one. Pyrrha's smiling face engulfed the screen, radiating as she was cast in front of Beacon. With a cough, he pressed the play button.

"Alright Jaune, just like we practised." All the other words became white noise to him as he focussed on the tone of her voice, the comfort that she radiated naturally. He could only see the red of her hair and the green of her irises.

He closed his eyes and embraced his scroll, as if it was her. "I love you Pyrrha. I love you so much."


End file.
